You don't need to watch very far into the trailer for Todd Phillips' Joker movie to get that this is not your daddy's version of the Batman villain. Joaquin Phoenix is giving what looks to be an inspiring, operatic performance, with the film teasing some really dark layers that you can only get from a deep study into DC's most psychotic bad guy. While certain aspects have shown a resemblance to the classic comic The Killing Joke, Phillips insists his movie isn't drawing on any particular storyline, and fans may not be happy about that.
Phillips tells Empire Magazine...
“We didn’t follow anything from the comic books, which people are gonna be mad about. We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from. That’s what was interesting to me. We’re not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It’s about this man.”
I don't know if fans will really be that upset about it if the movie is good. For all of the many incarnations of Joker we've seen on the big screen, a true origin for him is pretty much a blank slate for Phillips to fill-in any way he chooses.
As for the guy underneath that clown makeup, Phillips says there really was no other actor he considered other than Phoenix...
“I think he’s the greatest actor. We had a photo of him above our computer while we were writing. We constantly thought, ‘God, imagine if Joaquin actually does this.’”
Joker hits theaters on October 4th and co-stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, and Marc Maron.
